Photos: Kerman Struggling with 15th Year of Drought

The province of Kerman in Iran is now in its 15th year of drought. Kerman, considered one of the agricultural centers in Iran, has been facing one of the most difficult times for over a decade now. Drought is now the biggest problem for a province where about 1/3 of the orchards of the country are located.

Kerman province has about 550,000 hectares of agricultural fields and it hosts 23.5% of countries orchards. This includes pistachio orchards which bring about $1.5 Billion in exports revenue each year.

About 90% of the water in the province is allocated to agriculture 70% of which is said to be wasted due to use of inefficient traditional irrigation methods.

Kerman is one
of the 30 provinces of Iran. It is in the south-east of the country. Its
center is Kerman. The province of Kerman is the second largest province
in Iran, 180,836 km sqr with a population of about 2
million.